Sight Concern gets highest charity honour

A charity which helps blind people and those with restricted vision has received the highest award available to voluntary groups.

Sight Concern Bedfordshire has been handed the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, and will receive the award from the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire later this summer.

The group are an independent charity with a small team of paid staff based in Luton and Bedford, plus a dedicated team of over 150 volunteers.

They run over 20 different services, including an award-winning Low Vision Service in Bedford and Luton that has been running since 2001. Each year the charity has contact with over 3,000 visually-impaired people in Bedfordshire and Luton.

Chief executive Nick Gibson said: ‘We are very honoured and proud to receive the Queens Award for Voluntary Services.

“As a local independent charity supporting some of the most vulnerable people within our community we rely on our volunteers in all aspects of the work we do.

“At this time more people than ever are in need of our support and the more volunteers we have, the more vulnerable people we can reach within our community.”

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and winners are announced each year on June 2 – the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.

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